Bernhard Warkentin, miller and banker, encouraged thousands
of Mennonites from Russia to settle in South Central Kansas in the mid-1870s.He imported and promoted the planting of
Turkey red winter wheat, helping make Kansas
the breadbasket of the world.1847-1908.

Bernhard Warkentin. Photo courtesy Bernhard WarkentinHouse

Bernhard
Warkentin was born June 18, 1847, in the village
of Altonau, Molotschna
Colony, S. Russia (Ukraine). He arrived in the United States
on June 5, 1872, the very first of Russian Mennonites to arrive on U.S. soil.

Within six
months, Bernhard had traveled over 1,500 miles throughout the mid-United States
and Canada.
He reported in letters to David Goerz that he would recommend his people come
to Kansas, if they were to immigrate, as the
soil and climate were like theirs in Ukraine, where the Turkey red hard
winter wheat would grow.

Having gone
back to the Ukraine to visit
family in 1885, Bernhard commissioned his nephew, Bernhard Enns, to purchase
and ship several thousand bushels of Turkey red wheat seed to Newton, seed that Bernhard later distributed
to local farmers at cost. With this move, Turkey red wheat was suddenly
available in large quantities for farmers, a significant step in the history of
Kansas
agriculture.

Grist mill at Halstead. Photo courtesy Bernhard Warkentin Home

At a
conference at Carey Hotel in Wichita in
the spring of 1900, Warkentin suggested having large amounts of Turkey red hard
winter wheat seed imported from the Crimea
(15,000 bushels). Kansas
millers agreed. Mark A. Carelton made a trip to the Crimea
and the seed was imported for the 1901 fall planting season. A box car was set
in each county that planted wheat for availability for local farmers.

Newton Mill, 1900. Photo courtesy Bernhard Warkentin House

In 1870, Kansas raised less than
2.5 million bushels of spring wheat. In 1880, Kansas raised 17.3 million bushels of wheat.
In 1890, 30.3 million bushels. In 1908, the year of Mr. Warkentin's death, 100 million bushels.

He died a
tragic death when he and his wife went on a trip to Europe and the Middle East with a touring company. Upon leaving Jerusalem April 1, 1908 he was accidentally shot by a young
prince, the grandson of the Emir of the Arab tribes in Algeria. Mr. Warkentin died in a hospital in Beirut, Syria
the same day.

The funeral
was held at the Warkentin House on May 5, 1908. Bernhard was eulogized as a man who had a more substantial
part in the development of Harvey County and the State of Kansas than any other. He was depicted as a
modest and quiet man, whose integrity was unquestioned.

Warkentin owned mills in Halstead, Newton, and Oklahoma. He also established banks in Halstead and Newton to make it easier
for farmers to get loans. He helped
found Bethel College
in North Newton and Bethel Deaconess Hospital in Newton. He was inducted into the Kansas Business Hall of Fame in 1989.

Click here
for a more detailed chronology of Bernhard Warkentin and his mission to get Turkey

The Warkentin House, 211 E. 1st. 316.283.3113.
Open September-December and April-May, Saturday-Sunday 1-4:30 p.m and June-August Tuesday-Sunday 1-4:30 p.m. Built in Newton in 1886-87, it is
on the National Register of Historical Places and on the Kansas Historical
Register.

Former Newton Milling and Elevator
Co., 3rd and Main, is also on the National and State Registers and has
been remodeled to house a restaurant and many offices

The Mennonite Settler
Statue, Athletic Park, 600 block of W. 5th. The
17-foot memorial was part of a 1942 Government Stimulus Program designed to honor Bernhard Warkentin as the importer of wheat
from Russia, the Santa Fe Railroad for transporting the wheat and the Mennonite
farmers for growing the wheat.

Warkentin mausoleum in
Greenwood Cemetery located just west side of I-135 at the Broadway/First Street exit. Warkentin is interred in this mausoleum that he had built just a few months before leaving on their final
trip.

HALSTEAD

Halstead Museum, 116 E. First. 316.835.2475. Open Saturday-Sunday 2-5 p.m. See display about Warkentin, Mennonites coming to the area, and early harvest artifacts.